JENKS, Keith Ward

NAME                JENKS          Keith Ward
RANK                Ordinary Telegraphist     60979                                                                                           
SHIP                  HCMS Alberni K 103                                                                                                                  Born                  March 10, 1925 - Detroit - Michigan - USA                                                                      Residence         Clinton                                                                                                                                        Died                   August 21, 1944          19 years     5 months 
Memorial           Halifax Memorial - Halifax - Nova Scotia
                          Panel 12
Mother               Mrs, Dorothy Quaife (Jenks) - Clinton and London

Keith was born in Detroit, Michigan on March 10, 1925. He lived on Huron Street in Clinton and attended Clinton United Church. He completed Grade XIII at Clinton Collegiate and he was a student there at time of enlistment.

Canada

Keith went to London in May 1943 and enlisted into the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve and at that time he was 5" 8" tall and weighed 135 pounds. He had a fair complexion, with hazel eyes and auburn hair. HMCS Prevost was in London and the first three weeks of training were here. He was given the rank of Ordinary Seaman. On June 7 he was assigned to HMCS "York" for more training which lasted 4 weeks. They were housed in the automotive building of the Canadian National Exhibition. At that time on July 5 he was posted to HMCS Cornwallis in Nova Scotia for additional training. Here it was bootcamp and the men learned seamanship, boat handling, drill, self defence and ropework. On September 8 it was on to St. Hyacinthe. While there he trained to be and Ordinary Telegraphist.                                                                                                                                    On March 30, 1944 he moved from St Hyacinthe to HMCS Stadacona for 3 weeks.

Overseas

From April 22-June 3 he was with HMCS Niobe based in Greenock - Inverclyde which was partly a transit camp for RCN personnel between postings.                                                                                                                        HMCS Alberni escorted convoys from Canada to Iceland and during 1942 she rescued 145+ men from the North
Atlantic after their ships had been torpedoed. In April of 1944 she was ordered to England in preparations for the upcoming Normandy Invasion. On July 26th she was attacked by a German Junkers 88 and she was successful in shooting it down.

In the Field 

On August 21st 1944, Alberni had been ordered to relieve HMCS Drumheller on patrol for U-boats to the
eastward of the swept channels leading to the Normandy beaches. On her way to Drumheller at 11:45 hours
she was steering south at 14 knots in fair weather and a nne 5 knot wind and State Four Seas. Her asdic was
sweeping 80 degrees on either side of her bows and her radar was operational. Hands to dinner had just
been piped, so those seamen not on deck were in the mess eating. Four minutes later with her asdic and radar running she was struck by an acoustic torpedo on her port side just aft of her engine room and in ten seconds she was awash from the funnels aft, listing to port and sinking very rapidly. In another ten seconds only her bow remained above the surface. In another ten seconds HMCS Alberni had sunk stern first and as she went below the waves she rolled over on the men who were in the water and at that point one of her boilers blew. Most of those seamen off watch and below decks were trapped, but one stoker escaped from the engine and
boiler room while the captain was washed overboard. There was absolutely no time to release any rafts and
any survivors had to cling on to anything they could grab hold of. For 45 minutes these men struggled to
stay alive. The MTBs 469 & 470 appeared on the scene after their Normandy duties after having seen the explosion of the torpedo and seeing Alberni disappear from the horizon they immediately changed course to investigate.                                                                                                                                                                  ASDIC meant Anti Submarine Detection Investigation Committee was a transmitter/receiver sending out a highly directional soundwave through the water. If the sound waves struck an object the waves were reflected back and picked up by the receiver. The range was measured by the time the signal left the ship, struck the object and returned to the ship. The transmitter was on the bottom of the ship. A distinct blip would be heard if the signal located an object underwater. The ASDIC operator would then sound the alarm, feed the range and bearing to the bridge  Alberni's ASDIC was operating but the soundwaves were being absorbed by the runner coating U480 had about her.                                                                                                                                                       Alberni has been located on the floor of the English Channel and has been inspected by divers. What they noticed was that she was torpedoes where the engine room was. This was because the U480 was carrying acoustic torpedoes which one fired homed in on the noise of the ship it was attacking.  They also noticed the depth charges still on the stern and the life vests of the crew in amongst the wreckage.                                        Of the total complement of 90 men on HMCS Alberni, 59 men perished and 31 seamen survived. HMCS Alberni was sunk by U-boat 480 commanded by OL Hans Jachim Forster of the IX U-Flotilla.
Alberni went down 25 miles southeast of St Catherines Point on the Isle of Wight at position 50.18N - 00.51 W in the English Channel.                                                                                                                                                  U 480 was an experimental submarine and was clad in a special rubber coating and during all of her missions she was never detected by the Allied Navies. She was armed with 4 torpedo tubes in the bow and 1 in the stern. She would carry 14 torpedoes on her missions or 26 mines. On deck while surfaced she had 1 - 8.8" deck gun with 220 rounds. she had 1 - 1.5" anti-aircraft gun and 2 - .79" anti aircraft guns. In January of 1945 her Commander decided to go back to the point in the English Channel where the HMCS Alberni went down. It would be a fatal mistake for U480. The British had changed the shipping route to the beaches of Normandy and used deep sea mining on the shipping route where Alberni was. The Royal Navy called in Brazier and the mines were laid at the depth a submarine would be but any ship passing over the mines would be safe. U 480 came back and sailed into the minefield and a mine exploded near the stern sending her and the crew to the bottom.

Lieutenant Commander Ian Bell was the Captain of HMCS Alberni when she sank. Once back in Canada he made the decision to visit Mrs. Quaife.

During the month of July 1945 his mother was awarded the Memorial Cross and in July of 1950 Mrs. Quaife (Jenks) received the medals awarded to her son which were the 1939-45 Star, the France Germany Star, the War Medal and the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with clasp.

Keith is honoured and remembered on the Clinton Cenotaph, on the Memorial Plaque at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 140. on the Memorial Plaques of Clinton United Church and Clinton Collegiate Institute. As well he is honoured and remembered of the Canadian Virtual War Memorial and on the Halifax Memorial - Panel 12. He is also honoured and remembered on the Memorial Plaque in the HMCS Alberni Museum - Courtenay - British Columbia.

Watch the documentary titled U-480  The Hunt for Nazi Germany's Rubber Stealth Submarine. It is quite interesting and gives much information about HMCS Alberni.